'The Exxon Valdez is Going to Pale in Comparison'

'The Exxon Valdez is Going to Pale in Comparison'

The US military has joined efforts to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as fears rise about its scale.

Five
times as much oil as previously thought could be leaking from the well
beneath where a rig exploded and sank last week, US officials said
earlier.

The slick is 45 miles (72km) by 105 miles (169km) - almost the size of Jamaica - and heading for the US coast.

A third leak has been discovered, and a fire-fighting expert said the disaster may become the biggest oil spill ever.

"Probably the only thing comparable to this is the Kuwait fires
[following the Gulf War in 1991]," Mike Miller, head of Canadian oil
well fire-fighting company Safety Boss, told the BBC World Service.

"The
Exxon Valdez [tanker disaster off Alaska in 1989] is going to pale
[into insignificance] in comparison to this as it goes on."

Scientists say only a quarter of local marine wildlife survived the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Some
5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day were now thought to be gushing
into the sea 50 miles off Louisiana's coast, said the US Coastguard's
Rear Admiral Mary Landry.

If those estimates are correct, the spill could match the 11m gallons spilt from the Exxon Valdez within two months.

Controlled burn

The
scale of the operation to contain the oil spill and protect both the US
coastline and wildlife is unprecendented, with the military and other
government agencies collaborating with BP - which had hired the sunken
rig - and industry leaders.

Welcoming the US military's offer of help, BP's Chief Operating
Officer Doug Suttles said the company would take help from anyone to
combat the spill, but gave no specifics of what form that help might
take.

Efforts to stem the flow are being complicated by the
depth of the leak at the underwater well, which is about 5,000ft
(1,525m) beneath the surface.

Weather forecasters have
meanwhile warned that changing winds could drive the oil slick ashore
by Friday night. Its leading edge is now only 20 miles (32km) east of
the mouth of the Mississippi.

A coast guard crew has set fire to part of the oil slick in an attempt to save environmentally-fragile wetlands.

The "controlled burn" of surface oil took place in an area about 30 miles (50km) east of the Mississippi river delta.

But Mr Miller warned that burning off leaking oil was not a long-term solution.

"The object of this game is to shut off the flow," he said.

Relief well

Engineers
are working on a dome-like device to cover oil rising to the surface
and pump it to container vessels, but it may be weeks before this is in
place.

It is feared that work on sealing the leaking well using robotic submersibles might take months.

BP
is also working on a "relief well" to intersect the original well, but
this is experimental and could take two to three months to stop the
flow.

President Barack Obama had been briefed on the new
developments, and BP has welcomed the offer of assistance from the
defence department to help contain the spill.

Seventy vessels -
oil skimmers, tugboats barges and special recovery boats that separate
oil from water - as well as five aeroplanes were working to spray
dispersants and round up oil, BP said.

Burn zone

Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead after the worst oil rig disaster in almost a decade.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the top priority was "to protect our citizens and the environment".

With
the spill moving towards Louisiana's coast, which contains some 40% of
the nation's wetlands and spawning grounds for countless fish and
birds, it was hoped a "controlled burn" of oil contained by special
booms would limit the impact.

Environmental experts say animals
nearby might be affected by toxic fumes, but perhaps not as much as if
they were coated in oil.

On Wednesday afternoon, BP and coastguard boats swept the thickest concentrations of oil into a fire-resistant boom.

This was then towed to a five-mile "burn zone" set up inside the slick, where it was set alight shortly before nightfall.

Further

Whew. That was way too close for comfort. And yeah, the country's in a sorry state to have come to this. But not only does Doug Jones become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama in 25 years; his win is a blunt rejection of all the hate-mongering, gay-bashing, race-baiting, sexual-assaulting, serial lying crap of losers Moore and Trump and Bannon and their ugly ilk. Forward to mid-terms. And once and for all, to Moore in all his evil: "Fuck you and the horse you (badly) rode in on."